Thursday, 26 October 2017

BAG Gigs - November 2017

Four more great acts this month - top independent singer/songwriters from home and abroad. For all gigs, doors open at 8:30pm; Admission is €12.

Monday, November 6th - Brendan O'Shea & Jenna Nicholls (IRL & USA)

Originally from Killarney, singer-songwriter Brendan O’Shea moved to the United States in the late 90’s. Since then, he has become a veteran of New York City’s songwriter scene and released three albums which have garnered praise from critics and press around the world.

Brendan’s singing can also be heard in such films as Ron Howard’s Academy Award nominated film Backdraft and in the wildly successful Karen Gehres documentary Begging Naked. His songs are also featured on ABC’s docudrama Boston Med.

Brendan has shared stages with The Frames, The Swell Season, Glen Hansard, Cowboy Junkies, Elliott Smith, Loudan Wainright, and Interpol as well as other innovative contemporaries. In addition to headlining his own shows in both the United States and Europe, he has embarked on four tours of Japan with the Trinity Dance Troupe and is currently collaborating with Colin Dunne and Mike Kirkpatrick on new works for the company.

Brendan released his fourth studio album, entitled 'Mid-atlantic Ghost' in December 2016

Midatlantic Ghost has a slow burning intensity, never skimps on intimacy and has immediate appeal… This is one for people who love well crafted songs and are serious about truly great songwriting.
Dan Neely – Irish Echo, NY – 2017

Jenna Nicholls is a native of a Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, but calls NYC her home. She has toured all over the world and performed with a variety of well known and talented artists such as Oscar winner Glen Hansard, Amanda Palmer, Lucius, Angela McClusky (Telepop) Rob Moose, Thomas Bartlett (BonIver /Doveman), Nouvelle Vague and many others. Her music has been featured in film and television. She's toured and released 2 full albums: "Curled Up Toes in Red Mary Janes" and "The Blooming Hour".

Too quiet for too long on the live scene, Corkman, Eugene Brosnan is back on the road, and its a pleasure to welcome him back to Mick Murphy's for his first headlining BAG show in many's the year.
Like fellow Corkman, Freddie White, Eugene Brosnan is a rare animal - a performer who is both a gifted lyrical songwriter, and a master of interpreting songs by other songwriters.
With a hat-full of new songs, he's back touring again, and I'm really looking forward to hearing the new material; past experience assures me it'll be of the highest quality.
Albums, 'Frames of Mind' (2000) and, later, 'Solid Ground' - where songs from Dylan, Warren Zevon and Springsteen sit alongside some of his own compositions and do not feel out of place among, "the headless Thompson gunners" and "the ghosts of poets and hoboes" that inhabit the soundscape of this very real and atmospheric recording - remain firm favourites of mine.

Whether fronting her folk-rock all-girl-power-trio, duo with drums, or solo-electric, she is at once magnetic, delicate, fierce and tender. Her voice lulls and soothes all the while soaring over the cinematic effects of a sometimes raucous electric hollow-body guitar. At the root of Greener's expansive sound are her songs which summon their truth from mountain ranges, holy places, deserts, oceans and forests, or the lonely stretch of blacktop from Old Route 66, to the Golden Gate, to the Tappan Zee. Musically, Greener's influences are as vast as the high desert plains before there were borders, before the west was won.

Born an alien of the Motor City's however alluring cacophony, Greener was first enamored with the jazz vocalists that crooned on the late night WDET radio station in Detroit. Beside those standard torch balladeers, other early inspirations were the Laurel Canyon and Greenwich Village songwriter scenes of the 1960's and 70's; then later, Texas poet-writers like David Rodriguez, Townes Van Zandt and Lucinda Williams. Years living in Austin left a permanent mark on Greener - in psyche and in song - so much so that Guy Clark took her under his wing as a co-writer in the last years of his life. A combined love of modernist poetry, bohemia, and the modal D tuning on her sometimes raucous electric tremolo guitar gives Greener her unique approach.

Malojian, or Stevie Scullion, to his friends, is a young singer/songwriter from Lurgan, near Belfast.
He's been making real waves in the past few years, and I'm delighted to present him for his debut BAG appearance on November 27th.
Joining him on the night will be Mark McCausland - better known as one half of The Lost Brothers - to open the show, and back Stevie on guitars and harmony vocals. This will be a real treat of a gig, and is likely to live long in the BAG memory.

Over the last few years, Malojian has released 4 stunning solo albums, along the way collaborating with some musical legends, including Steve Albini, who earned his chops producing Nirvana, The Pixies etc. His latest album - 'Let Your Weirdness Carry You Home' features Joey Waronker (Beck, R.E.M., Atoms For Peace, Roger Waters), Gerry Love (Teenage Fanclub), Jon Thorne (Yorkston/Thorne/Khan, Lamb) and more…But it’s Malojian’s own voice and songs that sets him apart from the crowd.

“Absolutely love that! If the new album is as good as that track it’s gonna be a masterpiece…a strong element of Beatles ’67…that kind of slightly woozy psychedelia…beautiful…” Ralph McLean, BBC, June ’17“achingly beautiful” Q Magazine“the North’s best songwriter over the last half decade” Hot Press Magazine

LINKS

About Me

BAG - Ballymore Acoustic Gigs -takes its name from the village of Ballymore Eustace, Co. Kildare, where live Roots Music gigs have been hosted for over 20 years, featuring the best of Irish and overseas singer/songwriters and musicians. It's current home in the village is the Stage Inn (Mick Murphy's)- a small traditional country pub run by Phil & Sean Murphy.
Up until his untimely passing in 2010, the much respected Larry Roddy ran the gig as part of a circuit of venues throughout the country into which he booked some of the finest quality musicians. The Ballymore gig has a tradition of being a listening room; performers are afforded the best of order and respect during their performance. Gigs generally take place on Monday nights at 8:30pm.